For years and years, we have been reading about ways to diet, like scheduled eating where we can and can’t eat at certain times—you probably know what we are referring to! But maybe you’ve now been hearing about a new way of eating, called intuitive eating, and how it kind of tells you to stop doing what you’ve been told to do all of your life when it comes to dieting.
Intuitive eating is quite simple, but it does require you to unlearn some of your old habits and reframe how you view food. Here’s what you need to know!
Defining Intuitive Eating
Intuitive eating is a method that requires you to be the expert in knowing when you need to eat, what you need to eat, and how much you need to eat. There aren’t guidelines like in normal diets about restricting foods, calories, or when you should eat.
Intuitive eating promotes a positive attitude towards your body image, weight, and the foods you eat.
If you’re hungry, you eat! If you want carbs, you eat them! If you are craving mixed berries, yogurt, granola, and a piece of toast with almond butter for dinner, eat it! Snacking after 8:00 pm is something you definitely can do with this method—there are no restrictions!
Intuitive eaters reject the diet cycle of counting calories and food deprivation. Instead, intuitive eating honors body signals and hunger cues, giving us unconditional permission to eat without guilt.
Intuitive eating has gained popularity as a revolutionary way to support your long-term health and quality of life without diet plans or unhealthy eating plans that adhere to a scarcity mindset. Still, honoring hunger comes from training your eating habits to understand your body's nutritional needs.
There are two kinds of hunger that you experience daily: physical hunger and emotional hunger, which can impact how you feel about foods and eating. Being able to understand the difference is essential for intuitive eaters, as you can better control when you are eating and what you are eating.
- Physical hunger is when your body tells you it needs more nutrients to fuel itself. It might look like your stomach growling or becoming tired after skipping breakfast. You will usually feel full after eating when you experience physical hunger.
- Emotional eating is when you experience an emotion like sadness, loneliness, or boredom, and you consume food to help you overcome that emotion. The foods you might consume are often on the more comforting side (high carbs and sugar) and less nutritious.
The Principles of Intuitive Eating
There are a few tips that you can use to help you eat intuitively, and it’s important to understand that unlearning many of your old habits is going to be one of the hardest parts of this change.
We are often conditioned to avoid too many carbs and skip out on eating our favorite dessert, but if we are not happy with what we are eating, are we actually benefiting from those decisions?
Intuitive eating wants you to start saying “yes” to foods (and to your taste buds) instead of constantly turning them down because you read in some magazine that you should.
You know your body better than anybody else, so you know what it wants and needs.
Don’t restrict yourself!
If you have the diet mentality that you need to avoid foods or aren’t allowed to eat certain things, you need to first learn to unlearn that.
One bite of chocolate or a piece of your favorite cheesecake is not going to physically harm you or set you off of your routine, and the food police will definitely not show up at your door. The satisfaction factor of intuitive eating helps us rediscover the joy in eating without anxiety.
When you choose to not eat foods that your body craves, it could lead to you having more issues with food like binge eating disorders or having intense guilt, feelings of anxiety, and self-esteem issues.
Studies showed that people who stopped restricting their eating and instead ate what they wanted experienced overall improved eating behaviors and self-esteem. People developed a healthier relationship with food because it was no longer about avoiding foods, but rather wanting to choose good foods because you enjoy them.
Choose healthy, fulfilling foods.
It’s good to be stocked with foods that are healthy and nutritious so that when you do get hungry, you have options to choose from. It’s important that though you aren’t restricting yourself, you still are eating foods that are good for you.
Having too many simple carbs or refined sugars throughout the day can seriously slow you down and make it harder to focus or feel energized.
There are plenty of foods that you can incorporate into your daily intake that are delicious, fulfilling, and nutritious.
Remember, you are listening to your body’s hunger to decide when you need food, but it requires mental effort to choose the right food to consume. It’s especially harder when the slice of chocolate cake is right next to the berry parfait, so try to avoid making that cake so available in the first place.
Respect your mind and body.
You have to build a healthy relationship with food in order for proper intuitive eating, as being in control and understanding what your needs are is how you stay sustained. You should be able to trust your body when it comes to needing food. When you feel hungry, you should not wait to eat. Give yourself the boost your body needs and feel confident in that decision.
You should respect your body, and if you are feeling full, it’s perfectly okay to stop eating. Sometimes we feel that we need to force ourselves to finish a plate or not eat any more of something with carbs, but your body will tell you when it’s done and when it needs more. Many of these thoughts that we have are ingrained in our brains due to social media, diet culture, and rules that have been made up.
Eating less than you need is not the key to weight loss—and weight management is not the primary function of food.
Benefits of Intuitive Eating
Intuitive eating has many benefits that impact your physical health, mood, and mental health. Intuitive eating can help you to maintain your weight and will improve your psychological attitudes. You will feel better, less moody or irritable, and overall more content when you are choosing what you want to eat and when. There is more of a sense of control when you are the one making the decisions for yourself, and you get to learn the cues that your body gives you surrounding food.
There are also many health benefits to intuitive eating, like lower cholesterol and blood pressure. It was also found that people who intuitively eat were less likely to have disordered eating patterns, like binge eating disorder, because there is the ability to not feel restricted or guilty.
The premise of building a healthy relationship with food can be beneficial for almost anyone to accept and develop, helping you to be the healthiest and happiest version of you.
How Thistle Can Help
If you don’t know what recipes to start with, consider signing up with Thistle to get nourishing plant-based meals and snacks to help you get through your day with healthy options. We offer salads, soups, bowls, and more for you to have delivered directly to your door.
Thistle’s main goal is to provide you with delicious, convenient, and accessible meals that you can gain inspiration from, as well as enjoy and fuel yourself up with. These meals are easy to grab and go, which makes for a great solution to intuitive eating.
With our pre-made dishes, you can instantly have food waiting for when you get hungry! If you are looking into intuitive eating, give us a try to help ease your way into having the right food available for when your stomach starts to growl.
Sources:
A Review Of Interventions That Promote Eating By Internal Cues | NCBI
Relationships Between Intuitive Eating And Health Indicators: Literature Review | NCBI
For years and years, we have been reading about ways to diet, like scheduled eating where we can and can’t eat at certain times—you probably know what we are referring to! But maybe you’ve now been hearing about a new way of eating, called intuitive eating, and how it kind of tells you to stop doing what you’ve been told to do all of your life when it comes to dieting.
Intuitive eating is quite simple, but it does require you to unlearn some of your old habits and reframe how you view food. Here’s what you need to know!
Defining Intuitive Eating
Intuitive eating is a method that requires you to be the expert in knowing when you need to eat, what you need to eat, and how much you need to eat. There aren’t guidelines like in normal diets about restricting foods, calories, or when you should eat.
Intuitive eating promotes a positive attitude towards your body image, weight, and the foods you eat.
If you’re hungry, you eat! If you want carbs, you eat them! If you are craving mixed berries, yogurt, granola, and a piece of toast with almond butter for dinner, eat it! Snacking after 8:00 pm is something you definitely can do with this method—there are no restrictions!
Intuitive eaters reject the diet cycle of counting calories and food deprivation. Instead, intuitive eating honors body signals and hunger cues, giving us unconditional permission to eat without guilt.
Intuitive eating has gained popularity as a revolutionary way to support your long-term health and quality of life without diet plans or unhealthy eating plans that adhere to a scarcity mindset. Still, honoring hunger comes from training your eating habits to understand your body's nutritional needs.
There are two kinds of hunger that you experience daily: physical hunger and emotional hunger, which can impact how you feel about foods and eating. Being able to understand the difference is essential for intuitive eaters, as you can better control when you are eating and what you are eating.
- Physical hunger is when your body tells you it needs more nutrients to fuel itself. It might look like your stomach growling or becoming tired after skipping breakfast. You will usually feel full after eating when you experience physical hunger.
- Emotional eating is when you experience an emotion like sadness, loneliness, or boredom, and you consume food to help you overcome that emotion. The foods you might consume are often on the more comforting side (high carbs and sugar) and less nutritious.
The Principles of Intuitive Eating
There are a few tips that you can use to help you eat intuitively, and it’s important to understand that unlearning many of your old habits is going to be one of the hardest parts of this change.
We are often conditioned to avoid too many carbs and skip out on eating our favorite dessert, but if we are not happy with what we are eating, are we actually benefiting from those decisions?
Intuitive eating wants you to start saying “yes” to foods (and to your taste buds) instead of constantly turning them down because you read in some magazine that you should.
You know your body better than anybody else, so you know what it wants and needs.
Don’t restrict yourself!
If you have the diet mentality that you need to avoid foods or aren’t allowed to eat certain things, you need to first learn to unlearn that.
One bite of chocolate or a piece of your favorite cheesecake is not going to physically harm you or set you off of your routine, and the food police will definitely not show up at your door. The satisfaction factor of intuitive eating helps us rediscover the joy in eating without anxiety.
When you choose to not eat foods that your body craves, it could lead to you having more issues with food like binge eating disorders or having intense guilt, feelings of anxiety, and self-esteem issues.
Studies showed that people who stopped restricting their eating and instead ate what they wanted experienced overall improved eating behaviors and self-esteem. People developed a healthier relationship with food because it was no longer about avoiding foods, but rather wanting to choose good foods because you enjoy them.
Choose healthy, fulfilling foods.
It’s good to be stocked with foods that are healthy and nutritious so that when you do get hungry, you have options to choose from. It’s important that though you aren’t restricting yourself, you still are eating foods that are good for you.
Having too many simple carbs or refined sugars throughout the day can seriously slow you down and make it harder to focus or feel energized.
There are plenty of foods that you can incorporate into your daily intake that are delicious, fulfilling, and nutritious.
Remember, you are listening to your body’s hunger to decide when you need food, but it requires mental effort to choose the right food to consume. It’s especially harder when the slice of chocolate cake is right next to the berry parfait, so try to avoid making that cake so available in the first place.
Respect your mind and body.
You have to build a healthy relationship with food in order for proper intuitive eating, as being in control and understanding what your needs are is how you stay sustained. You should be able to trust your body when it comes to needing food. When you feel hungry, you should not wait to eat. Give yourself the boost your body needs and feel confident in that decision.
You should respect your body, and if you are feeling full, it’s perfectly okay to stop eating. Sometimes we feel that we need to force ourselves to finish a plate or not eat any more of something with carbs, but your body will tell you when it’s done and when it needs more. Many of these thoughts that we have are ingrained in our brains due to social media, diet culture, and rules that have been made up.
Eating less than you need is not the key to weight loss—and weight management is not the primary function of food.
Benefits of Intuitive Eating
Intuitive eating has many benefits that impact your physical health, mood, and mental health. Intuitive eating can help you to maintain your weight and will improve your psychological attitudes. You will feel better, less moody or irritable, and overall more content when you are choosing what you want to eat and when. There is more of a sense of control when you are the one making the decisions for yourself, and you get to learn the cues that your body gives you surrounding food.
There are also many health benefits to intuitive eating, like lower cholesterol and blood pressure. It was also found that people who intuitively eat were less likely to have disordered eating patterns, like binge eating disorder, because there is the ability to not feel restricted or guilty.
The premise of building a healthy relationship with food can be beneficial for almost anyone to accept and develop, helping you to be the healthiest and happiest version of you.
How Thistle Can Help
If you don’t know what recipes to start with, consider signing up with Thistle to get nourishing plant-based meals and snacks to help you get through your day with healthy options. We offer salads, soups, bowls, and more for you to have delivered directly to your door.
Thistle’s main goal is to provide you with delicious, convenient, and accessible meals that you can gain inspiration from, as well as enjoy and fuel yourself up with. These meals are easy to grab and go, which makes for a great solution to intuitive eating.
With our pre-made dishes, you can instantly have food waiting for when you get hungry! If you are looking into intuitive eating, give us a try to help ease your way into having the right food available for when your stomach starts to growl.
Sources:
A Review Of Interventions That Promote Eating By Internal Cues | NCBI
Relationships Between Intuitive Eating And Health Indicators: Literature Review | NCBI
